Changes in communications platforms, increase in regulation and evolving tools for individualized media have presented unique challenges for applications operating within and across various platforms. There is a pressing need for innovative solutions that adapt conventional business practices to emerging communications channels and devices.
Short form messaging for SMS, Microblogging and Status Updates provides a unique challenge to requirements for content, documentation or instructions that cannot be fully contained in 140 or fewer characters. When these formats are used for marketing, promotion or uses that require outside processes or additional information, it is difficult to include or clearly indicate the presence of required disclosures, rules, policies, fine print, user data and instructions. When these formats are used to connect user services across mobile, social, network, cloud and server based platforms, there is a need to communicate instructions and to include clear pointers, links and indicators to additional user, privacy and disclosure information as well as to manage, document and report on settings, actions, uses and preferences. Incorporating information by reference in a standardized coded system enables users to address business, process and regulatory requirements in an elegant, efficient and easily understood framework.
Advertisers and their agencies conduct word of mouth and influencer marketing campaigns which leverage the power of social networks by contacting influential members of these communities and provide them with gifts, samples and/or payments for review and comments. There has been an increase in regulation in this space and, as a result, influencers and marketers are required to clearly disclose material connections of these relationships. One requirement for disclosure is that it applies to all communications, including short form microblogs. The challenge that is presented is that short form messages are by their nature text based and short in length (140-160 characters) which makes it difficult to include a valid disclosure to indicate the nature of the relationship, as required. The present disclosure addresses this challenge by using a coding system and/or a system of icons or badges that are readable and/or represent a disclosure or instruction that is prima facie human readable as a clear disclosure, and follows a structured and standardized coding framework which clearly indicates the specific nature of the disclosure or instruction upon reading or visually seeing the representation of the present disclosure.
Data, services, and other resources are generally identified with a resource identifier such as a uniform resource locator (URL) or other unique identifiers. Resource identifiers can become rather large, and sometimes too large to include in certain types of data elements, such as microblogs and SMS messaging. These limitations exist in content length (limit of characters), bandwidth usage (limit of throughput), processing power (limit of read/write for multiple requests or for limited use devices) and in a need to standardize request or information identifiers and annotations or metadata for delivery alongside other designated content. To enable access to the resource, a shortened resource identifier can be used by the limited capability device or platform and mapped to the full resource identifier. URL shortening is a common practice, but URL shorteners use generic links that are not prima facie identifiable as to the nature or meaning of the content being presented to the reader until the link is clicked or expanded. The present disclosure functions as a statement or instruction in all available forms, as opposed to merely and generically redirecting traffic to a disclosure, instruction or additional information.
Marketers are required to disclose certain connections or associations as well as terms, rules, instructions and disclosures in a manner that is clear to a reader in short form prior to clicking on a hyperlink or performing additional actions. The present disclosure allows for a framework of codes and references that are prima facie readable and identifiable and can be used to indicate status of a relationship, provide additional detail, direct a user to more information, or initiate a larger process on a related system or in the cloud.
Regulated and commercial industries require certain information to be delivered or displayed alongside specific content. The present disclosure uses a framework that can be used to document, track and identify certain statements or disclosures and can confirm that requirements, process or best practices were in place when displaying or delivering certain content. The present disclosure can be used to measure, report and confirm compliance.
The present disclosure and framework can be used to automate the tracking and reporting of statements, disclosures or instructions and can create an audit trail documenting the placement, associations, users and nature of reported actions. Furthermore, the present disclosure framework can be used to verify that additional information or identification were provided along with a given message or content.
Additionally, long form content such as policies, rules and documents can be reduced in size and can be standardized using the framework of the present disclosure. Coded references can then be compared to standards or preferences of an individual or of a designated group. Coded references may be used to visually represent the contents of the long form content in a visual representation of the content of the long form content or of the differences between a given document and the comparison to given preferences.
There has been a need for a centralized system to incorporate all of these functions into a single framework that can be applied to content in various forms including short form messaging, microblogs, web sites, status updates, social networks, cloud computing, telecommunications and other forms of electronic messaging. The present disclosure is just such a system.
Current methods of disclosing associations and disseminating instructions exist, but have significant limitations that are addressed within the present disclosure.
One significant limitation is that existing methods and solutions are not products and do not follow standards that allow for simple identification of the specific association, scenario and user.
Moreover, existing methods lack a centralized framework and/or repository from which to document and track users and instances. Many of the alternatives to the present disclosure rely upon Ad Hoc solutions such as hashtags, which are generic in nature and not identifiable as to source, or are text based or visual displays that are not tied to a centralized framework that allows for use across multiple platforms and environments.
These limitations, along with public concern and increasing regulatory requirements, make it highly desirable to have methods and systems in place to create, manage, track and monitor communications in short-form and long-form environments and across internet, mobile, network, cloud computing and social network environments in the manner set forth by the present disclosure.